AN ORDINANCE OF THE MAYOR AND CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA, ACCEPTING THE RECOMMENDATION OF THE FINANCE AND CITYWIDE PROJECTS COMMITTEE AT ITS JULY 13, 2018 BUDGET BRIEFING; AND AMENDING APPENDIX "A," ENTITLED "FEE SCHEDULE," TO THE CITY CODE, IN ORDER TO MODIFY THE FEE CHARGED PURSUANT TO SECTION 82-383(a), ENTITLED "PERMIT FEE; PENAL TIES FOR LATE PAYMENT; REVIEW OF FEE; EXCEPTION," IN ORDER TO MODIFY THE ANNUAL SQUARE FOOT FEE FOR SIDEWALK CAFES, INCREASING THE PER SQUARE FOOT FEE FROM $20 TO $25, PROVIDING FOR REPEALER, CODIFICATION, SEVERABILITY, AND AN EFFECTIVE DATE.

This year, as part of a budget process that needed to identify ways to address a $5.5 million budget gap and still maintain services, the City has evaluated all components of the budget including employee salaries and benefits, potential efficiencies, and revenue enhancements.  At the July 13, 2018 Budget Briefing of the Finance and Citywide Projects Committee (FCWPC), the sidewalk café permit fee was recommended to be increased.

The City Commission last increased sidewalk café fees through Ordinance 2010-3698 which raised the fees from $15 to $20 implemented over a two year period.  The first increase of $2.50 went into effect on October 1, 2010 and the second $2.50 increase was effective on October 1, 2011. 

At the July 13, 2018 FCWPC meeting, the Committee approved the sidewalk café permit fee to be increased from $20 to $25 effective October 1, 2018. This increase would generate $358,000 in revenue for sidewalk café permit fees for Fiscal Year 2019.

For Fiscal Year 2018, it is estimated that the City will collect approximately $1.5 million in sidewalk café permit fees.  This is projected to increase to approximately $1.8 million in Fiscal Year 2019.

At its September 12, 2018 meeting, the City Commission approved the Ordinance on First Reading and set a Second Reading Public Hearing for September 26, 2018.  A suggestion was made to provide a possible scenario of staggering the increases over two years as had been done previously, and to provide a data set of net permit fee increases by operator.

The fees are generated through the permit system Energov.  Should the City Commission wish to issue a midyear billing to ease the burden of the unforeseen expense, manual invoices would need to be generated.  One possible option would be to make the increase effective October 1, 2018 with the fee increase of $5 per square foot to be billed April 1, 2019.

Should the City Commission desire to impose a fee increase over a two year period, such as implementing half of the proposed increase ($2.50 per square foot) effective October 1, 2018 and the other half to be effective October 1, 2019, then the anticipated revenue increase to the City would be reduced by half in fiscal year 2019.

Attached is a listing of the existing sidewalk cafes, the area that they occupy and the financial impact of the proposed fee increase.  There are approximately 160 permitted cafes with 30 that are exempt from fees currently.